


Fair Deals

by Faetality



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fairy King Peter Hale, Fantasy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25590106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faetality/pseuds/Faetality
Summary: His mother always told him to favor the fae, to never ask for favors of them, and to never give away his name. She would be so disappointed in him now.
Relationships: Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 14
Kudos: 164
Collections: Steter Week 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 of Steter Week - Harlequin : coming from the word Erlking or Faerie King.

_ “You must never go into the woods at night, the monsters play in the dark.” _

_ “But mama, what about the moon?” _

_ “She will try her best to keep you safe but even the moon and stars cannot stop the faeries from their mischief.” _

_ “Why would the fairies want to hurt anyone? You give them milk and sugar and gifts” _

_ “They knows not how we live, they will play their games and never wonder if you know you’re playing too. Even you would be no match for the Erlking, my dear Mischief.”  _

_ * _

The leaves crackled with each step, brushed against his ankles and tickled the arches of his bare feet. The moon cast long shadows in the darkness. 

*

_ “Do not step in the fairy rings!” _

_ “But mama, I wanted to bring you a flower!” _

_ “Those flowers are not ours to take, they are the faerie’s flowers and we don’t want to mess up their gardens. They might ask for a handsome young boy as payment and he is worth a thousand faerie flowers. Come, you can find me one this way.”  _

_ * _

The clearing was ten feet across, mushrooms circling it in a perfect ring. He took care to step over them, not daring to ruin their lines. 

*

_ “Did you put out the milk?” _

_ “I did.” _

_ “And the honey?” _

_ “Yes mama.” _

_ “Good, now come sit beside me. I don’t feel too well today my love. Good, come closer, tell me. What Mischief have you been into today?” _

*

With shaky hands he lays the old cloth on the ground, unfolding it to expose the bread and honey he had so carefully stored away. 

“I’ve brought you a gift.”

*

_ “Keep your name your own dear Mischief, never give it away.” _

_ “How would I give it away?” _

_ “You never know when you might speak to the fae, they’ll take your name and stow it away and then they’ll take you with it.” _

_ * _

“You May call me Stiles.”


	2. The Deal

His mother had died just shy of his eleventh summer. Though in truth he felt he had lost her long before then. Some townsfolk said she had been taken by the Faeries and that was why she had become so wild, so cruel and forgetful in her end. Stiles hadn’t cared for those folk much but could never muster the words for defense of the fae folk his mother loved so dearly. 

_ They are not cruel, though they can be just as well as you or I, they have their games and their mischief. They adore pretty things and beautiful people but they are not horrid things that take what they wish.  _

The changed children they would call them. But Claudia was no child and she was a friend to the Fae. So Stiles did not listen to the townsfolk, accepted their empty condolences and moved on with his flour and salt and the small pittance of sugar. His father was a lawman, a guard and protector but not of their home. He had larger responsibilities than their little house with its garden that his wife had planted. Stiles did not blame him, did not cry nor yell when the alcohol soaked into the blanket she had quilted for their anniversary. He simply took it to the river and washed it with the last of her soap and stored it away in his trunk. Safe from the carelessness of a grieving widower. 

He was in his thirteenth summer when his friend, Scott, the son of a healing woman in town, asked him why he wasted his bread and honey on the squirrels. Stiles had, admittedly, been defensive. No matter his age and the way the townsfolk looked sideways at him this had been his Mother’s way and he would keep it so long as he could. Even when his own belief in the fair folk waned. 

He was seventeen when his father was carried into their house and laid upon the small cot in the living room near the fire. The man had been on a patrol when the boar had caught his leg, the best hadn’t stopped there and Stiles caught one of the men dying he’d seen the inside of the boys father before the man got his hands over the wound. Debris and delirious his father tried to assure him of his health but Stiles knew what the men would not say.  _ He will be dead by morning.  _

He was seventeen when he left his father lying on a cot and set off into the woods with a meager offering and a mantra of ‘ _ hang on father’  _ in his mind. He was seventeen when he stepped into the fairy rings for the first time. He had no expectations, only a childish hope that the stories- that the  _ warnings _ \- had been true. 

He was seventeen when he learned that the stories were true. 

“Stiles… what a strange gift you give.” 

He spins around, hand falling to the knife on his hip. The man is… beautiful. Ethereal in a way that Stiles cannot put his finger on. He wears a vest with elegant stitching, cut deep enough that the lines of his chest are visible. He’s barefoot as well and his eyes glow with starlight. The young man wonders if this might be a mistake. 

“It’s what I have. I need a favor.” 

“Didn’t your mother tell you not to make deals with the fae?” 

“Every single day.” 

The creature comes closer and Stiles is forced to hold his ground at the circle’s center or show weakness. 

“What is it that you need?” 

“My father is dying. I heard that the faeries- that  _ you  _ can heal mortal wounds.” 

“We can. But why would I do that for you?”

“I would owe you a favor. My first born even.” 

“Hm.” The man circles him, studies him. “I have no interest in children.” Disappointment fills him. Fear. “But I think that you are interesting,  _ Stiles. _ So I am going to do you a favor and in return I will ask you for two things.”

“That’s not a fair trade.” 

“You are asking me to save your fathers life. I think two small favors are more than acceptable.”

“What do you want?”

“I want you to visit here once a month. It can coincide with the full moon if you wish. The other favor I will hold and ask of you later.” 

“Why?”

“You aren’t a regular human. You’re interesting and I have not had my curiosity peaked in a very, long, time.” He was close enough that Stiles could feel his body heat. “So, do we have a deal?”

_ Do not ask for things of them and do not agree. They are devious, my dear Mischief. They will lead you astray. _

“We do.”

  
He was given a vial that’s shone like moonlight.  _ “Have him drink it and drink it all. He will heal…. and Stiles? Thank you for the gift.” _


End file.
